


Operation: Distraction

by FluffyLlamacorn



Category: Excalibur (Comic), New Mutants, X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, I really don't know how to classify the mood in this one?, Implied/Referenced Character Death, but it doesn't spend quite long enough on the sadness to really be a bummer, but then it ended up talking a lot about grief?, it started off with a silly concept, road trip to kyoto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 05:19:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17298521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyLlamacorn/pseuds/FluffyLlamacorn
Summary: After Doug’s death, Magneto winds up bringing Warlock and Kitty Pryde to Japan to distract them from the worst of their grief. Luckily he has Nightcrawler along as well, because he sure doesn’t know what he’s doing.





	Operation: Distraction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [duckwhatduck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/duckwhatduck/gifts).



> Written for Morgan as part of The X-Plain 2018 Holiday Fic X-Change
> 
> They said write what you know, so I took the four characters I'd been asked to use and made them hang out ten minutes from the hotel I was currently staying at. Then I went back and tried to figure out why and it wound up containing a lot of sadness and mourning, but I tried to keep it in check, so it wouldn't become a bummer. Hope you'll enjoy reading it.

Erik was… tired. Erik was often tired, but this last month had been especially hard. He already felt out of his depth as a headmaster, but losing a student had proven just how badly suited for the job he was. It hadn’t even occurred to him before Warlock’s… escapades that the young technarch would need some extra attention to help deal with the loss and once that topic had been raised, Illyana brought up that Doug’s other partner would need to hear the news as well and one thing led to another and suddenly Erik had ended up on a small fieldtrip shepherding Warlock and Kitty Pryde to Japan, because _reasons_. Good reasons, presumably, but the details had happened so quickly the chronology of them escaped his grasp at the moment.

Frankly, Erik suspected the other New Mutants of conspiring to get him out of the house for an extended period of time. He wasn’t sure whether they wanted to throw a party, go on another irresponsible adventure or attempt to raise their dead friend from the grave, but either way, he’d have to make sure someone would stop by to check up on them.

For now he stood in a crowded shopping arcade in Kyoto watching the two young mutants squeal over the goods for sale in a gashapon machine outside a store selling anime merchandise. There were multicolored banners everywhere advertising various series and apparently the very orange one was a ninja. Erik was hardly an expert on Japanese culture, but he was under the impression ninjas relied on stealth, so that seemed as bad a choice as a thief wearing bright pink.

The other chaperone on the trip – there were, surprising everyone, still people who didn’t completely trust Erik alone with children – put a blue, furry hand on Erik’ shoulder. “Mein Freund, come with me. I found a quiet place I think you’d like to see.”

Erik grumbled a noise of agreement. The two young people could handle being left alone for a couple of minutes and he needed a break. The game arcade they had just been in had been noisy and Kitty insisted on continuing until she actually won the huge plushy in front of her, which had taken… a while and Warlock asking the crane machine nicely to actually stop when she told it to.

Hardly two minutes further down the shopping arcade, Kurt had found the entrance to a shrine. Instead of another store, a gate with the two lintels that indicated the entrance to a Shinto shrine stood, neatly fit between the two buildings around it. Behind it was a peaceful area perhaps the size of a small backyard and in the back of it was a shrine to pray at. There were a handful of other people around.

Erik narrowed his eyes as he entered. “You do realize not all non-Christian religions are the same, right?”

“Why, of course,” Kurt laughed easily. “The religion is all for me. I brought _you_ here for the quiet.”

It was true. Even just a couple of steps into the area, the background noise of the shopping arcade had disappeared and a quiet serenity covered the area. Erik was surprised to find the area continued around a corner, twice as big as first expected. He was even more surprised to see his blue companion walk up to the shrine and go through the motions of using the big robe to ring the gong, clap and bow as certainly as any of the Japanese believers around him.

“Are you branching out? I thought you were a devoted catholic,” Erik said as the blue mutant approached him again once he had finished.

“I’m not branching out,” Kurt answered sweetly. “But I would find it rude to visit someone’s home and then ignore them entirely. It’s a question of respect, not belief.”

Erik raised an eyebrow. “You speak like it’s certain they exist.”

“I’ve been to Asgard,” Kurt reminded him. “Several of my friends have fought beside Hercules, and Merlin keeps messing with my current team. I see no need to doubt the existence of other gods or belief systems just to celebrate my own.”

“Hm,” Erik said to prove he’d been listening. He didn’t quite agree with the way of thinking. Surely Asgard was no more divine than any other of the alternative world superheroes had encountered.

Kurt Wagner was very good at disarming smiles. “Don’t worry, I don’t need you to agree with my way of thinking. Do you want to go check on the children again?”

“Yes, let’s. One never knows how quickly they can get into trouble,” Erik agreed.

They come back to find Kitty Pryde sulking while crouching on a curb with Warlock doting on her. “Query: Which would cheer self friend up the fastest: Going to visit the hedgehogs, the cats or the owls? Perhaps the board games?” They were given a wide berth by the other shoppers. Even the other tourists felt uncertain about the technarch comforting the young woman.

Kurt immediately teleported by her side. “What’s wrong, Kätzchen?”

“It’s dumb,” Kitty said as she automatically grabbed Kurt in a tight hug.

“I don’t believe that at all,” Kurt said with an actually soothing voice. Erik still had to work on his own attempts at soothing. “Why don’t you tell me?”

“It’s just…” She sniffled. “The kanji was being a jerk.”

“The… written character?” Kurt asks. “What did it do?”

“I couldn’t read it,” Kitty mumbled.

“I thought you spoke fluent Japanese,” Erik commented.

The girl _glared_ at him. She had a very good glare. “Yeah, I _speak_ fluent Japanese. Kanjis aren’t spoken, dumbass. I know most of them, but there’s a bunch I’m still missing or where I only know some of the readings or only the meaning, but not both and I was just… I started thinking… _He_ would have no problem reading anything here.”

Oh. Yes. Perhaps they should have seen this coming. It’s hard to distract yourself from language when you’re in a foreign country.

“What did it mean in the end?” Kurt asked as he wiped the tears from Kitty’s cheek.

“It was just a character name from a series I didn’t know,” Kitty explained. “Names use obscure kanji sometimes.”

“How did you figure it out?”

“I asked a clerk,” Kitty shrugged. “Why?”

“I just think it’s wonderful we didn’t lose all appreciation for language when we lost your dear friend. You’re keeping his legacy alive every time you analyze the deeper meaning of a word or a grammar point.”

That got a smile out of the young girl. “Some day I’ll learn all the kanji.”

“I’m sure you will,” Kurt smiled back. “Now, I believe I heard something about boardgames?”

“Correct!” Warlock piped up. “Self identified a [type: board game] café close by. [Type: board game] café is named after a game piece.”

“Let’s go! We Germans are known for our skills with board games, Ja? Adults against kids, I’m sure we’ll beat you.” Erik rolled his eyes at Kurt’s comically exaggerated German accent, but wasn’t against the rest of the suggestion. It had at least gotten the girl to smile again as she confidently declared she would be the ultimate winner.

Erik fell in next to Warlock as the young technarch lead them down a road towards the game café he had spotted. “How are you… feeling?” he asked, in his best attempt at sympathetic.

“Self is… uncertain,” Warlock said, slowing down significantly to think while walking. “Self was extremely sad once finality of situation: loss finished comprehension period, but now self is no longer feeling said sadness intensely. Is this a fault in self’s processors?”

“No,” Erik answered, for once confident. This was a topic he actually knew something about. “Grief happens differently for every person and for every loss. Going numb is extremely common. For now, all we can do is make sure he isn’t forgotten.”

Warlock nodded slowly. “Assignment: Accepted.”

“So, um, are you good at boardgames?” Erik asked. He really did need to work on his social skills at some point.

“Status: Unknown. Self has never played very many.”

“Don’t worry, Lock!” Kitty busted into the conversation. “With our powers combined we’ll defeat the oldies! I’m sure my uno skills will save the day!”

In the end, the kids did manage to win the ensuing board game tournament, but mainly because of Warlock’s incredible skills at charades.

**Author's Note:**

> (Write what you know means complaining about how many kanji there are, right?)


End file.
